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Just because you grow older doesn’t mean you have to grow up! Comedy superstars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider are at their hilarious and outrageous best playing childhood friends who reunite one holiday weekend to relive the good old days. It doesn’t matter that these five guys are now respectable businessmen, husbands and fathers. Once they get back together, nothing is going to stop these kids-at-heart from having the time of their adult lives. From the people who brought you
Click, comes this hilarious and heartwarming film that proves men will be boys. Adam Sandler and his frequent costars (Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schneider) grope blindly for maturity in the genial comedy
Grown Ups. Five childhood ! pals are drawn back together after the death of their former basketball coach; over the course of a Fourth of July weekend, they--along with their wildly attractive wives (played by Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph) and precocious children--loosen up, try to introduce their kids to the simple pleasures of nature, air some dirty laundry, and rediscover their friendship. In other words, it's a fairly formulaic comedy that veers awkwardly from gags (ranging from slapstick to mean-spiritedness) to sentiment (ranging from sappy to not entirely sappy). Its appeal will depend entirely on your feelings about Sandler and the rest of the gang--if you like this bunch of lugs (in all their prolonged adolescent glory), then you'll like this movie. If you don't, you won't. Everyone's in relaxed but good form; affable is more the comic goal than razor sharp. Expect gags about being fat, being old, prolonged breast-feeding, ogling hot chicks, flatulence, etc. There's some role revers! al: it's the women, particularly Hayek as a type-A fashion des! igner, w ho need to learn the eternal cinematic lesson that family is more important than work. Featuring guest appearances from Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, and Steve Buscemi.
--Bret FetzerJust because you grow older doesn’t mean you have to grow up! Comedy superstars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider are at their hilarious and outrageous best playing childhood friends who reunite one holiday weekend to relive the good old days. It doesn’t matter that these five guys are now respectable businessmen, husbands and fathers. Once they get back together, nothing is going to stop these kids-at-heart from having the time of their adult lives. From the people who brought you
Click, comes this hilarious and heartwarming film that proves men will be boys.Adam Sandler and his frequent costars (Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schneider) grope blindly for maturity in the genial comedy
Grown Ups. Five childhood pals are drawn ! back together after the death of their former basketball coach; over the course of a Fourth of July weekend, they--along with their wildly attractive wives (played by Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph) and precocious children--loosen up, try to introduce their kids to the simple pleasures of nature, air some dirty laundry, and rediscover their friendship. In other words, it's a fairly formulaic comedy that veers awkwardly from gags (ranging from slapstick to mean-spiritedness) to sentiment (ranging from sappy to not entirely sappy). Its appeal will depend entirely on your feelings about Sandler and the rest of the gang--if you like this bunch of lugs (in all their prolonged adolescent glory), then you'll like this movie. If you don't, you won't. Everyone's in relaxed but good form; affable is more the comic goal than razor sharp. Expect gags about being fat, being old, prolonged breast-feeding, ogling hot chicks, flatulence, etc. There's some role reversal: it's the wo! men, particularly Hayek as a type-A fashion designer, who need! to lear n the eternal cinematic lesson that family is more important than work. Featuring guest appearances from Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, and Steve Buscemi.
--Bret FetzerJust because you grow older doesn’t mean you have to grow up! Comedy superstars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider are at their hilarious and outrageous best playing childhood friends who reunite one holiday weekend to relive the good old days. It doesn’t matter that these five guys are now respectable businessmen, husbands and fathers. Once they get back together, nothing is going to stop these kids-at-heart from having the time of their adult lives. From the people who brought you
Click, comes this hilarious and heartwarming film that proves men will be boys. Adam Sandler and his frequent costars (Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schneider) grope blindly for maturity in the genial comedy
Grown Ups. Five childhood pals are drawn back together! after the death of their former basketball coach; over the course of a Fourth of July weekend, they--along with their wildly attractive wives (played by Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph) and precocious children--loosen up, try to introduce their kids to the simple pleasures of nature, air some dirty laundry, and rediscover their friendship. In other words, it's a fairly formulaic comedy that veers awkwardly from gags (ranging from slapstick to mean-spiritedness) to sentiment (ranging from sappy to not entirely sappy). Its appeal will depend entirely on your feelings about Sandler and the rest of the gang--if you like this bunch of lugs (in all their prolonged adolescent glory), then you'll like this movie. If you don't, you won't. Everyone's in relaxed but good form; affable is more the comic goal than razor sharp. Expect gags about being fat, being old, prolonged breast-feeding, ogling hot chicks, flatulence, etc. There's some role reversal: it's the women, particul! arly Hayek as a type-A fashion designer, who need to learn the! eternal cinematic lesson that family is more important than work. Featuring guest appearances from Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, and Steve Buscemi.
--Bret FetzerDick and Mandy, a young working class couple, move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next door. Mandy's unmarried sister, Gloria, is constantly dropping in, and will not take any hints that the couple would prefer to be left alone, until her presence finally goads them into action. The entire film comes to a head when both couples are found wrestling in the hall while trying to oust the poor sister from the Mr. Butcher's bathroom.Danny Maccabee (Adam Sandler) meets the girl of his dreams (Brooklyn Decker) but has to enlist his loyal assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be his soon-to-be ex-wife in order to cover up a careless lie. When more lies backfire, Katherine’s kids become involved, and everyone heads off to Hawaii for a ridiculous, ou! t-of-control weekend that tests the limits of how far we’ll go for love.It all comes down to chemistry. And the two main stars of
Just Go with It, Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, thankfully, have chemistry to spare. Both actors have plenty of sheer likability and honest ease, as well as sparks in just the right places, which helps propel
Just Go with It to its satisfying (if a bit predictable) conclusion. (Hollywood execs: Consider an update of
Moonlighting starring these two.) If the premise, loosely based on the Goldie Hawn film
Cactus Flower, stretches reality, the capability of the whole cast makes
Just Go with It an enjoyable ride. Sandler plays Danny, a surgeon who falls for a much-younger bombshell, Palmer (swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker, a surprisingly natural actress). But when Palmer finds the fake wedding band that commitment-phobe Danny has used for his no-strings-attached previous relationships, the web of fibs begins. Da! nny asks his assistant, Katherine (Aniston), to pretend to be ! his soon -to-be-ex-wife, and Aniston plays it to the hilt. But soon Danny's wobbly house of cards includes Katherine's children--and, in the ultimate romantic-comedy trope, a group trip to Hawaii to work things out. The cast really is stellar, including very small supporting roles by Nicole Kidman and singer Dave Matthews, as an insufferable couple disliked intensely by Katherine. (Of course they end up in Hawaii with the gang, too.) Minka Kelly, Kevin Nealon, and Rachel Dratch also make memorable cameos. But it's Sandler and Aniston, along with the snappy direction by Dennis Dugan (
Happy Gilmore,
Big Daddy), who make
Just Go with It one of the more romantic--and funny--romantic comedies in recent memory. Our advice: Sit back, and just go with it. --
A.T. HurleyMisfit NYPD detectives Gamble and Hoitz (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) are sentenced to life behind the desk. They hate each other and the monotony of their meaningless jobs, as they’re forced to! live in the shadow of the two biggest and most badass cops on the force (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson). But when those guys go down for the count, opportunity knocks for Gamble and Hoitz. Stumbling onto what could be one of the biggest crimes in years, can The Other Guys step up their game to solve the case without killing each other and destroying NYC in the process? From the director of
Step Brothers and
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.Although the comedy team of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg does not sound like a threat to Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, they conjure up consistent laughs in
The Other Guys, yet another comedy from
Talladega Nights director Adam McKay. Ferrell plays a mild-mannered police accountant partnered with Wahlberg's hothead (recently demoted to desk-jockey duty after shooting a very famous Yankee player during the World Series), and both men must endure the showboating fame of a pair of su! percops (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) in their New Yo! rk City precinct house. Along with sending up cop-movie clichés, the movie basically exists to give Ferrell and Wahlberg room to work amusing variations on their characters (with grace notes for Michael Keaton's stereotypical tough captain, too). The loosey-goosey structure works especially well when Wahlberg is needling his partner's squareness or marveling, in wonderfully awestruck tones, at the unbelievable hot-i-tude of Ferrell's wife (Eva Mendes)--a discrepancy made all the more maddening because Ferrell seems indifferent to her charms. Throw in a plot about a billionaire Wall Street crook (Steve Coogan) and the revelation of Ferrell's hilariously dark past, and the movie finds a nice zone of silliness. Of course, any Will Ferrell vehicle must be judged by the opportunities for the star to launch into some borderline-surreal riff--and happily, this film comes through. From the moment Ferrell begins deconstructing Wahlberg's lion versus tuna metaphor,
The Other Guys mana! ges to find time for such nonsense, and the film--the world in general, for that matter--is the better for it.
--Robert HortonSylvester Stallone stars as Barney Ross, leader of
The Expendables, a tight-knit team of skilled combat vets turned mercenaries. Hired by a powerful covert operator, the team jets off to a small South American country to overthrow a ruthless dictator. Once there, they find themselves caught in a deadly web of deceit and betrayal. Using every weapon at their disposal, they set out to save the innocent and punish the guilty in this blistering action-packed thriller.They might be expendable, but they sure are durable:
The Expendables is crammed with well-traveled action heroes, called to a summit meeting here to capture some of that good old ultraviolent '80s-movie feel. Star-director Sylvester Stallone rides herd as the leader of this mercenary band, which includes Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Stallone's old
Rocky V nemesis Do! lph Lundgren. Mickey Rourke, looking like a car wreck on Highw! ay 61, p lays the tattoo artist who communicates the gang's assignments to Stallone; throw in Terry Crews and Ultimate Fighting champ Randy Couture, and you've got a badass crew indeed. The specifics here involve a Latin American island where US interests have mucked up the local politics beyond repair--but when Sly's eye is caught by the feisty daughter (Giselle Itie) of the local military jefe, a simple job gets complicated. Adding to the B-movie flavor of the enterprise, we've got Eric Roberts and Steve Austin bouncing around as badder-than-the-bad guys, plus Bruce Willis popping in for a one-scene bit, and… well, perhaps another unbilled cameo. The violence doesn't reach the frantic pace of Stallone's last
Rambo picture, but it builds to a pretty crazy crescendo in the final reels, during which each cast member gets to show his stuff. Although Stallone's face looks younger than it did in the first
Rocky movie, his line delivery is more sluggish than ever, and what! lines! The dialogue is stuck in the '80s, too. Although it's pretty ham-handed throughout,
The Expendables is likely critic-proof: the audience that wants to see this kind of body-slamming throwdown isn't going to care about the niceties. Let the knife throwing begin.
--Robert Horton
